World’s largest aircraft can fly for three weeks straight

It’s like a law of the technology sector, governed by some unseen fundamental force: over a long enough time-line, the probability that someone will yet again hail the blimp as the Vehicle of the Future approaches 1.

It happens again and again: Cover stories and multi-page features claim that blimp technology is just a few short years away from making the plane, train, and perhaps even automobile totally extinct. Yet today, an announcement that might actually justify a bit of optimism in that direction: a new blimp design, which incorporates elements of both airplanes and helicopters and also happens to be the longest aircraft ever built, can stay aloft for 3 weeks and possibly carry up to 200 tons of cargo.

The design is from Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), incorporating ducted fans and large airfoils into a two-lobed blimp design. The aircraft is over 90 meters long, and can be used to stay aloft with minimal energy input, or to haul large amounts of freight. HAV sees the blimp revolutionizing certain communications situations, particularly military situations in which dependable mobile communications relays need to stay aloft and relatively still for long periods of time. Additionally, shipping to hard-to-reach parts of the world, such as Canada’s north and parts of Africa, could be made easier, faster, and cheaper with this technology.

Cargo planes like this Airbus Beluga could be outshone by slower, more efficient blimps.

There is also a luxury line of blimps slated for development — not the first time someone’s thought to cater to the cruise-going crowd with airships. It’s a natural fit, since blimps can offer a ride of unparalleled smoothness, and views that put even the most spectacular sea cruise to shame. If it could traverse the world for weeks without putting into port, this airship could allow excursion vacations of the sort that keep the tourism industry afloat.

Further plans for this basic ship design take a number of forms. HAV claims that an even larger version, a 120-meter monster called the Airlander 50, could transport 50 tons of cargo for a quarter the fuel cost of a conventional cargo plane. The airship recently unveiled cost about $50 million, which makes it comparatively cheap — an Airbus Beluga can run hundreds of millions of dollars for similar carrying capacity.

Images like this one are the bane of the blimp industry.

It’s easy to get cynical about blimp technology. It has, after all, had many chances at bat. However, the idea is only silly until it works — then it’s genius. This is an era in which long-standing challenges are falling before analytical science, materials science, computing science, and more. If fusion and the quantum computer could finally be approaching, why not the blimp as well?